GTX 295 - overheating (105 degrees)

[inquisiteur]

Hi there,

I have bought a at a good price a "second hand" high end PC a year ago.

Core I7 920, 12 gig, GXT 295 (Gainward), 2 terra

I open the case regulalry and clean out the dust.

Now, on most games I have no issue, but on a few of them, especially newer ones (Mafia 2 Stalker pripyat..), my graphic card heats up to 105 degrees in a timeframe of 12 minutes.

Wheter I play on very low settings or very high settings, doesnt matter, 105 d in 10 to 15 minutes.

I though the card was full of dust, or the termal paste was gone. Bought precision tools, opened the card, replaced thermal paste (which was totally burned out), but found not dust. All the rest was clean.

Plugged in the card in, played Mafia 2, and again 105 d in 12 minutes.

The problem is that at 105 d the graphic card automatically start decreasing performance to avoid complete burning. So basically I can play 15 minutes, and then I have to go play something else.

I cant send the card for warranty, I dont have any kind of receipt. Its not a case heating issue, theres 6 fans on my case, + the CPU and the GPU one.

I highly suspect that that my card is defective, alas I cant shell out 600 buck to replace it.

I can change thermal paste, but my knowledge ends here, anyone had the same issue and can provide good advice ?

Your help would be greatly appreciated, otherwise Im stuck playing Sokoban with a GTX 295....

Regards,

Inquisiteur

 

[inquisiteur]

1. Just wanted to add that I didnt overclock anything.
2. I keep track of the temp using EVA monitoring tool (great tool by the way)
3. I underclocked my card by 20% and it still overheat at the same speed.

 

[mark_k]

download the latest version of EVGA Precision.
You can now regulate the scaling of the fan(s) better.

 

[inquisiteur]

Thanks for your answer Mak.

I forgot to say that I set right from the beginning the fan at 100%, before even launching the game.

Doesn't matter, after a few minute the card is burning.

I will try to disable one core to see if this affects heating.

Any further suggestion would help me greatly.

 

[DaeM]

it sounds like the cooling unit doesnt contact correctly.

perhaps changing the thermal paste will help, provided that you reseat the heatsink correctly.

 

[nforce4max]

Is the card a dual pcb or a single? The dual in my opinion is easy to work with while the single with that cooler is junk. I never liked it as it was even slower than the old one. I believe that it is a contact issue rather than just thermal compound.

 

[inquisiteur]

Thx for your answers guys.

The card is dual GPU.

I have changed the thermal paste, but to no avail.

As for if the heatsink is properly stuck to both GPU i dont know. What I can tell however is that disabling one GPU doesnt change a thing since it overheats after some time, and its even ends by overheating the second one too. (like 105 / 98 degrees, although the second GPU is disabled).

I guess if the heat is passed on to the second GPU, this means that both GPU's are correctly placed on the heatsink ? (which is in the middle).

A friend told me that the fan may not be performing well. Looking at it spinning it doesnt sound broken, even if it was I set the speed at 100% as soon as I turn on the computer...

Do you think replacing the fan would help ? or the heatsink ? I dont know if a new heatsink / fan would take too much space for me to be able to screw both GPU back again on it. (the heatsink and the fan are in the middle).

 

[hari_41]

does the GPU heatsink gets hot when it reaches 105C?

 

[inquisiteur]

For the heatsink I don't know (it would require for me to run the card while it is splitted in 2) however the whole car is burning (all of it) is burning, I cant even put my hands on it.

 

[Yargnit]

You say the fan is set to 100%. Can you hear it? Like is it VERY loud? The GTX2XX fans are extremely loud when running at 100%. (Like an air blower) Listen and see if you can hear the fan blowing clearly. If you have any doubt as to if it sounds loud enough to be running at 100% then it isn't.

If it is actually at 100% and your reaching those temps then something is very wrong. Those fans under normal circumstances run around 40% or less and maintain temps significantly lower.

If you can't hear it clearly, then there is your problem. Just curious, what is your cards temp after sitting on a plain desktop for 5+ minutes?

 

[poofypants]

Maybe the temperature reading is inaccurate. It never occurred to me to open up a GPU case and clean it out. To much risk in messing something up imo. I just blow em out. Replacing thermal paste on a GPU? Really, u can do that?

 

[brennon7]

Is the fan actually moving?

 

[nforce4max]

Maybe the temperature reading is inaccurate. It never occurred to me to open up a GPU case and clean it out. To much risk in messing something up imo. I just blow em out. Replacing thermal paste on a GPU? Really, u can do that?

Loools :lol:

 

[aznshinobi]

^ I lawl at poofypans HAHAHAHA

 

[inquisiteur]

You say the fan is set to 100%. Can you hear it? Like is it VERY loud? The GTX2XX fans are extremely loud when running at 100%. (Like an air blower) Listen and see if you can hear the fan blowing clearly. If you have any doubt as to if it sounds loud enough to be running at 100% then it isn't.

If it is actually at 100% and your reaching those temps then something is very wrong. Those fans under normal circumstances run around 40% or less and maintain temps significantly lower.

If you can't hear it clearly, then there is your problem. Just curious, what is your cards temp after sitting on a plain desktop for 5+ minutes?

Sorry for taking so long to reply, I though this thread was dead, went on nvidia forums, no luck yet..

When I can clearly hear the "air blower" when I set it at 100%. When idle the temps is around 65c.

Something is very wrong indeed and I have absolutely no idea what, the only thing I know is that this problem consistently occurs with games from 2009 and onwards, not with older games.

Ex Gothic 3 (2006) on ultra high settings the card does not exceed 91c.

 

[fruees]

Provided you've updated drivers, there shouldn't be a problem with dx10 v dx9. The reason for the higher temps in newer games is that they generally work the GPU harder.
First verify your temps in rivatuner, if they're still that high this is almost undoubtedly a heatsink problem. Remove the heatsink and look to see if it has been making contact. Put new thermal paste on the heatsink, place it on the GPU and remove it - the heatsink should have made visible contact on both cores, leaving some of the thermal paste on each core.

If the heatsink does seem to make good contact with the GPU. You should check with Nvidia and see if you can return it, if not you may want to invest in an aftermarket cooler... As you say you can't replace it so finding a cooler could be worth it....

 

[inquisiteur]

Thanks fruees,

I did already apply new past, did check though if the past went on the gpu or net.

The fact that one GPU is overheating the other would mean for me that both are linked to the Heatsink. I am saying because even while totally disabling one, the other one end of overheating, and heating up the other inactive GPU to 100c as well.

(105c / 100c)

I gave up and went bying the Gibabyte 470 super overclock card. Got a nice price on it (260 EUR with shipping - I am in Europe) so I guess that solves my problem..in a rather expensive way.

 

[seanny]

Hi there,

I have bought a at a good price a "second hand" high end PC a year ago.

Core I7 920, 12 gig, GXT 295 (Gainward), 2 terra

I open the case regulalry and clean out the dust.

Now, on most games I have no issue, but on a few of them, especially newer ones (Mafia 2 Stalker pripyat..), my graphic card heats up to 105 degrees in a timeframe of 12 minutes.

Wheter I play on very low settings or very high settings, doesnt matter, 105 d in 10 to 15 minutes.

I though the card was full of dust, or the termal paste was gone. Bought precision tools, opened the card, replaced thermal paste (which was totally burned out), but found not dust. All the rest was clean.

Plugged in the card in, played Mafia 2, and again 105 d in 12 minutes.

The problem is that at 105 d the graphic card automatically start decreasing performance to avoid complete burning. So basically I can play 15 minutes, and then I have to go play something else.

I cant send the card for warranty, I dont have any kind of receipt. Its not a case heating issue, theres 6 fans on my case, + the CPU and the GPU one.

I highly suspect that that my card is defective, alas I cant shell out 600 buck to replace it.

I can change thermal paste, but my knowledge ends here, anyone had the same issue and can provide good advice ?

Your help would be greatly appreciated, otherwise Im stuck playing Sokoban with a GTX 295....

Regards,

Inquisiteur

My EVGA #295(am currently selling for $400 barely used) had the same issues at first but I turned up the fans to 75% and added a couple really good case fans.My advice would be to get a case with a good cooling solution.I recommend the Silverstone Raven RV01 or the RV02.The reason is that in these cases,the motherboard is turned 90 degrees and positions the graphic cards facing upwards,this allows better airflow to the cards but better yet,the air flows out of the top fans easier.The only issue I had was not enough fans but you can get some really quality ones from New Egg.Make sure that you get 1 or 2 to fit your needs but the most important factor in choosing a fan is cfm cubic feet per minute-in other words how much air this can move.You would probably have to spend 20 to 30 dollars but in the end it is worth it.After adding the 1st PC corps fan,my temps went from 98 degrees to never over 82 degrees and that is after playing Metro2033 for 45 minutes.Of course there are better options and better opinions but this one was a quick,easy,painless work for me when I was using this build.Hope I helped.

 

[neesus]

1. Just wanted to add that I didnt overclock anything.
2. I keep track of the temp using EVA monitoring tool (great tool by the way)
3. I underclocked my card by 20% and it still overheat at the same speed.

just a thought...maybe you got a "good price" on this used sys because the previous owner had the same problem...maybe you could invest in a new video card with a better known brand name...i never have sacrificed performance with little known brand names on any components..having worked in the "electronics" field my entire career i know that some mfg's use much cheaper and lower quality components in their products and thats how they sell them "cheaper". my advice..for whatever its worth ...is to stay with known quality brand names for all your components.
I wish you luck

nessus

 

[aznshinobi]

please notice, you just posted on a topic that was dead for 2 months.

 

[cyberjedi]

FULL SOLUTION:


http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=193346&st=0#entry1194249

 

[cyberjedi]

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=193346&st=0#entry1194249]

FULL SOLUTION for overheating GTX 295 above